Douglas Isbell/Donald Savage
Headquarters, Washington, DC January 7, 1999
(Phone: 202/358-1547)
Mary Beth Murrill
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA
(Phone: 818/354-5011)
Vince Stricherz
University of Washington, Seattle
(Phone: 206/543-2580)
NOTE TO EDITORS: N99-2
STARDUST MISSION PRELAUNCH SCIENCE BRIEFING SCHEDULED FOR JANUARY 13
Managers and scientists leading the team preparing the
Stardust spacecraft to gather samples of icy comet dust and return
them to Earth will conduct a media briefing on the mission and its
science goals on Wednesday, Jan. 13, at 2 p.m. EST. The televised
briefing will originate from NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC.
Set for launch from Cape Canaveral Air Station, FL, on Feb.
6, 1999, Stardust will be the first U.S. mission dedicated solely
to a comet and the first return of extraterrestrial material from
outside the orbit of the Moon.
The primary goal of this Discovery Program mission is to
collect comet dust and related measurements during a planned close
encounter with comet Wild 2 (pronounced "Vilt-2") in January 2004.
Additionally, the Stardust spacecraft will bring back samples of
interstellar dust particles, recently discovered material
streaming into the Solar System. Ground-based analysis of these
samples after their return in January 2006 should yield important
insights into the evolution of the Sun and planets, and possibly
into the origin of life itself.
Presenters at the briefing are scheduled to include:
Dr. Carl Pilcher, science director for Solar System exploration at
NASA Headquarters
Dr. Kenneth Atkins, Stardust project manager at NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, CA
Dr. Donald Brownlee, Stardust principal investigator from the
University of Washington, Seattle
Joseph Vellinga, Stardust program manager at Lockheed Martin
Astronautics, Denver, CO
Dr. John Rummel, Planetary Protection Officer, NASA Headquarters
Extensive information on Stardust, including mission-related
art and images, and a public signature disk attached to the
spacecraft, is available on the Internet at the following URL:
http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/
NASA Television is located on GE-2, transponder 9C at 85
degrees West longitude, vertical polarization, with a frequency of
3880 Mhz, and audio of 6.8 Mhz. There will be two-way question-
and-answer capability for media at participating NASA centers.